Blogs

Week 11

Since it is nearing the finals time, this week we are practicing our speaking skills. We did so by incorporating the different vocabularies that we learned this semester and formed sentences. We also learned how to say what our major is and what our favorite thing is as part of practicing self-introduction phrases. In order to live in Korea, I also asked Evelyn how to order food in Korea and ask people how are you today. I think so far, my speaking is much better than before.

Week 12:

Class Cancelled

Week9:

 Spring Break

Week 10

During week 10, we started the class by discussing the film we watched last class and going over some of the common phrases that were said in the film. Watching a movie in Korean class was overall a good exercise because it helped with our listening abilities. For example, sometimes I can understand what the actors/actresses were saying and being able to understand that is really gratifying. Then, we watched another very popular Korean drama, called “Touch Your Heart” (진심이 닿다), It is the most popular Korean drama TV series right now. The show talked about a top actress suffering from a scandal that damaged her career, and was forced to step down from her job for two years. In order to get a role in a major upcoming television series, she had to agrees to get experience at a law firm, working as a secretary to a lawyer. The television was not very good and not quite as good as a listening experience compared to the movie film watched last class. This was because the actress tends to mumble a lot to act cute.And at the end of the class, we also talked about the new song just released in Korea. Evelyn said some korean singers' pronunciation is not really good so it might be hard for people to learn Korean by listening to the music. But it is still a good way to learn some new vocabulary in Korean.

 Week 13

For week13, we had review class for what we learned so far. First of all, we reviewed alphabet and sentence structure: S+O+V+ending. Evelyn asked everyone to make a sentence so I wrote 데빈은 돼지 입니다.

And we also reviewed Korean number systems and used them to represent date, minutes, seconds, money, number of things, age, time, number of people. For instance, number of things used 개.

What’s more, we reviewed how to say day of the week, grammar and VOCABS we learned so far. At the end of class, everyone also did a self introduction again. Compared with the self introduction we did in the first week of class, we are able to give a much longer self introduction and we can speak more fluently. Our self introduction included my name, my birthday, my age , my nationality and my major in University of Richmond. We also introduced our favorite K-pop groups.

Week 14

Finals week – exam time!

Week 11

Since it is nearing the finals time, this week we are practicing our speaking skills. We did so by incorporating the different vocabularies that we learned this semester and formed sentences. We also learned how to say what our major is and what our favorite thing is as part of practicing self-introduction phrases.

We did the following:

Name: 저는 데빈 입니다 (jeun nun devin ibnida)

Age: 저는 스물 한살 입니다 (jeun nun sumul hansal ibnida)

Birthday: 제 생일은 천구백구십칠년 십이월 십파일 입니다 (jyeo saengil eun cheongu baekgu shipchilnyeon shibyiwael shibyiil ibnida)

Major: 제 전공은 PPEL 입니다 (jyeo jangunin PPEL ibnida)

Nationality: 저는 중국 사람 입니다 (jeun nun juonguk salam ibnida)

Week 12

No class. – Evelyn went to geography conference in DC

Week 9

No class – Spring Break

Week 10

During week 10, we started the class by discussing the film we watched last class and going over some of the common phrases that were said in the film. Watching a movie in Korean class was overall a good exercise because it helped with our listening abilities. For example, sometimes I can understand what the actors/actresses were saying and being able to understand that is really gratifying. Then, we watched another very popular Korean drama, called “Touch Your Heart” (진심이 닿다), It is the most popular Korean drama TV series right now. The show talked about a top actress suffering from a scandal that damaged her career, and was forced to step down from her job for two years. In order to get a role in a major upcoming television series, she had to agrees to get experience at a law firm, working as a secretary to a lawyer. The television was not very good and not quite as good as a listening experience compared to the movie film watched last class. This was because the actress tends to mumble a lot to act cute.

Week 7

For week 7, we learned:

 새벽: dawn.  아침: morning, breakfast.  점심: noon, lunch

 저녁: afternoon, dinner. 밤: night

 오전: AM  오후: PM

 그제: day before yesterday  어제: yesterday. 오늘: today

 내일: tomorrow 모레: day after tomorrow

 봄: spring. 여름: summer  가을: fall  겨울: winter

 날씨: weather. 춥다: cold. 덥다: hot

 And in the class, we had conversation practice such as 지금이 어느 계절인가(What season is it now)

        지금 몇 시예요(What time is it now?)  내일은 몇 월 며칠이에요(What date is tomorrow?)

Week 8

In week 8, we watched a movie called 극한직업(Extreme Job) which is a 2019 South Korean action comedy film. This is about a team of detective and police are given many chances, but fail over and over again. They are given one more chance, which is to catch a drug gang, before they all get separated into different police departments. They go into the chicken restaurant to go undercover, to find the drug gang. The restaurant was going to close that day, so they buy the restaurant, but somehow, after buying the restaurant, their new business turns extremely popular, distracting them from their actual job. A rich man, who is a part of the drug gang, which they later find out offers to buy the restaurant. Since their business is so popular, it gets turned into a chain, which is secretly selling drugs, disguising them in the products. Once they find out, however, they chase down the gang, and fight them, which in the end, they arrest. After a long fight, they succeed, finally ending the situation in Korea with all of the drug dealing. With doing this, their jobs are saved, and they are promoted to officer ranks, finishing the task they were given. The plot line is really interesting, and we were asked to act out the dialogue in the movie. I think it is a really good way for me to practice speaking.

Week 5

In this class, we did more vocabularies since they were a big part of what we set out to do in this semester.

Monday: 월요일 wol yo il

Tuesday: 화요일 hwa yo il

Wednesday: 수요일 su yo il

Thursday: 목요일 mok yo il

Friday: 금요일 geum yo il

Saturday: 토요일 to yo il

Sunday: 일요일 il yo il

Morning: 아침 a chim

Noon: 점심 jeom shim

Afternoon: 저녁 jeo nyeok

Night: 밤 bam

AM: 오전 o jeon

PM: 오후 o hu

The process has been pretty difficult with vocabulary retention. Since we don't use the words that often in real life besides during classes, they are often difficult to remember. I have tried just writing them down several times on paper to remember them better and that has helped.

Week 6

In this week, we reviewed everything we learned before.

Native (영/공,일, 이, 삼…십, 이십, 백, 천, 만, 십만, 백만, 천만, 억)

Dates: 이천십구년 이월 십칠일 (2019I년 2월 17일)

Minutes and Seconds: 일분 일초 (1 minutes 1 second)

Money: 만오천원 (15,000 won), 십오만원 (150,000 won), 천오백원 (1,500 won), 백칠십원 (170 won)

Phone $ 전화번호가 뭐예요? 나의/저의 전화번호는 팔삼이(에)사공사(에)칠일칠사 이야/이예요. (What is your phone number? My phone number is 832-404-7174

A class of review is really good halfway through the semester because it helped us remember all the material. We also used the vocabularies to build sentences and learned more about grammar rules.

 Week 3

In the beginning of class, we went over the homework assignment first. Then, we had also been assigned vocabularies to remember from last class. For example, we did Native: minutes(분(bun)), seconds (초(chu)), money(원(won) (백baek,천cheon,만man,십만shibman,백만baekman,천만cheonman))

Sino: things(개gae), time(한시hanshi), people(명myeong).

In this class, we also did the number system in Korean.

Week 4

We reviewed the Korea number system and learned more about how to differentiate usage in real life scenarios. The native system is used for dates, minutes & seconds, and money, whereas the Sino system is used for counting the number of things, age, time and number of people. For each of the usage, we made sentences out of each. So that means for sentences such as저는 스물 한살 입니다 (I am 21 years old).

Week 1

During the first week of class, we start off by setting some goals we want to achieve throughout the semester. We did so by first establishing what we remember from last semester, which are the alphabet, some phrases on self-introduction, the two systems of the Korean number. Then, we decided we want to learn more vocabularies this semester and more on sentence structure, grammar.

Week 2

Based on the goals that we established in the last class, we decided to first solidify our knowledge first. So this class, we reviewed simple concepts such as the alphabet, where Evelyn would say a pronunciation, and we write down the matching Korean letter. Then, we did the same thing but using words, and short phrases. Evelyn then assigned a short homework assignment for us to work on, which includes copying the alphabet and translating words.

Week 7:

For week 7, we learned:

새벽: dawn.  아침: morning, breakfast.  점심: noon, lunch

저녁: afternoon, dinner. 밤: night

오전: AM  오후: PM

그제: day before yesterday  어제: yesterday. 오늘: today

내일: tomorrow 모레: day after tomorrow

봄: spring. 여름: summer  가을: fall  겨울: winter

날씨: weather. 춥다: cold. 덥다: hot

And in the class, we had conversation practice such as 지금이 어느 계절인가(What season is it now)

        지금 몇 시예요(What time is it now?)  내일은 몇 월 며칠이에요(What date is tomorrow?)

Week 8:

In week 8, we watched a movie called 극한직업(Extreme Job) which is a 2019 South Korean action comedy film. This is about a team of detective and police are given many chances, but fail over and over again. They are given one more chance, which is to catch a drug gang, before they all get separated into different police departments. They go into the chicken restaurant to go undercover, to find the drug gang. The restaurant was going to close that day, so they buy the restaurant, but somehow, after buying the restaurant, their new business turns extremely popular, distracting them from their actual job. A rich man, who is a part of the drug gang, which they later find out offers to buy the restaurant. Since their business is so popular, it gets turned into a chain, which is secretly selling drugs, disguising them in the products. Once they find out, however, they chase down the gang, and fight them, which in the end, they arrest. After a long fight, they succeed, finally ending the situation in Korea with all of the drug dealing. With doing this, their jobs are saved, and they are promoted to officer ranks, finishing the task they were given. The story is really interesting, and we were asked to act out the dialogue in the movie. I think it is a really good way for me to practice speaking.

Week5:

This week we learned how to say what day of the week it is today.

오늘 무슨 요일이죠? (What day of the week is it today?)

오늘은 _요일 이예요.

월요일: Monday.  화요일: Tuesday. 수요일: Wednesday. 목요일: Thursday

금요일: Friday. 토요일: Saturday. 일요일: Sunday

And we also learned how to say the number of people in Korean:

Number of people: 한 명, 두 명, 세 명, 네 명, 다섯 명, 열 명, 스무 명, 서른 명…

Week6:

  In this week, we reviewed everything we learned before.

Native (영/공,일, 이, 삼…십, 이십, 백, 천, 만, 십만, 백만, 천만, 억)

Dates: 이천십구년 이월 십칠일 (2019년 2월 17일)

Minutes and Seconds: 일분 일초 (1 minutes 1 second)

Money: 만오천원 (15,000 won), 십오만원 (150,000 won), 천오백원 (1,500 won), 백칠십원 (170 won)

Phone $ 전화번호가 뭐예요? 나의/저의 전화번호는 팔삼이(에)사공사(에)칠일칠사 이야/이예요. (What is your phone number? My phone number is 832-404-7174

Week3:

  We had to remember vocabulary that Evelyn sent to us. 저: I (formal)

나: I (informal).  너: you (informal). 우리: we 이것: this (thing)

저것: that (thing) 그것: that (thing) 이름: name 오늘: today

내일: tomorrow 학생: student 선생님: teacher 일본: Japan

중국: China 한국: Korea 네: Yes 아니요: No. 사람: Person

And in the class, we also learned about how to count in Korean. There are two number systems in Korean. One is native and one is Sino. Sino Korean is called China System too. It is 일(1),이(2),삼(3), 사(4),오(5),육(6),칠(7),팔(8),구(9),십(10),백(100). And then Native Korean System sounds really different from Sino Korean.

1:  하나

2:  둘

3: 셋

4: 넷

5: 다섯

6: 여섯

7: 일곱

8: 여덟

9: 아홉

10: 열

100: 백

Week4:

We reviewed Korean number systems and learned more about how to actually use them in our daily life. Sino Korean are used for dates, money, time(minutes), addresses and numbers above 100.  For example, January is 일월, February is 이월 , March is 삼월 when 월 means months. Compared with Sino-Korean, Native Korean system are used for time(hours),age and counting.  For instance, 2:20 is written as 두시 이십분. And we also learned how to say phone number and people’s age and birthday in Korean.

Week 1:

In the first week of the class, at the beginning of the class, we did self introduction to our classmates and language partner in Korean since all my classmates had already taken Korean last semester. I have learned Korean before so it was not really hard for me to introduced myself in Korea as well. In the later class, I learned Korean alphabet and how to combine it to make a word. I have never learned alphabet before so it was kind of hard for me. Also, we set our goal for this semester in the first class. Because I was thinking about study abroad in Korea, I want to learn something really useful in people’s daily life and Korean culture.

Week 2:

     Evelyn gave us worksheet and there are several vocabulary for us to remember. In the class, Evenly also asked us to write those vocabulary that we heard on the board. For example, we wrote:

가방 (bag) ,

양말(socks),

카카오톡(Kakao Talk)

중국(China)

엠버(Amber)

Because I just learned Korean alphabet, I spent more time than my classmates to spell the words correctly.

This semester, I have been helping one of my friends who is a leader of a praise team in Korea. He asked me to help with the translations of short 5 minute messages or sermons. It has been a really great experience because I have been realizing many things. For example, I once again realized that the sentence structures of English and Korean are totally flipped, which makes it difficult when you translate. Just as an example, if I were to say "귀여운 강아지가 사과를 좋아한데!", it would literally translate to "Cute dog apple like", which makes no sense at all. It has been a challenge to keep the phrases as similar as possible with the transitions in the video, but also recognize that the sentence structure is totally different. I also realized that there are so many phrases in Korean that cannot be translated or expressed in English. Because I understand the culture, I try my best to translate it in English without the phrase sounding odd. 

I am attaching a link to a message that I have most recently translated! (Notice: it is a Christian video, so please keep that in mind!) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnuAVMJ7l3g

As mentioned in my biweekly journal, we took a field trip to Grand Mart. It was a really good experience because other students were there as well. One interesting event that happened was one of the students had trouble with ordering what they wanted. He said a number such as 31, but the person taking the order misheard it as 32. In Korean 1 and 2 are similar in sound. 일 (il) is one, and 이 (ee) is two. She kept making sure, and asked "are you sure you said 31 not 32?". However, the student was sure he said 31 (I heard him as well!). Because of the similar sounding numbers, it was understandable that this kind of misunderstanding occurred. It was a situation we all laughed at and had lots of fun. 

Picture credits: Jenna Lee!! 

This post is dedicated to the continuously evolving nature of the Maltese language and the influence of the English language on local culture. I found an extremely interesting academic paper online about how the Maltese language spoken by younger people is rapidly converging with English. At this time, English is widely spoken and a confirmed national language. The influence of English, though, has extended into the linguistic structure of Maltese itself. The paper calls out elements such as verb structure in Maltese that matches English ways of expressing things, rather than traditional Maltese syntax structure. The paper suggests that there are a number of elements contributing to this pattern, such as efficiency, lack of Maltese terminology, the desire to demonstrate familiarity with English culture, and unintentionally applying English-language background. Other news articles that I read point out that many Maltese natives move to English-speaking countries and return with limited knowledge of the language. The Maltese-speaking community abroad is very small, therefore people lose their ability to communicate in their native language. Additionally, the Maltese economy has become home to immigrants who do not speak the language. Rather, they know or acquire English language skills to be able to communicate in business. As I have mentioned in previous articles, Malta's economy is heavily supported by tourism.

The academic paper notes that languages are always evolving. A couple of factors stood out to me, though, that may make this development very complex. In addition to its evolution, the Maltese language is also dying. Unlike other changing languages, this one is surrounded by pressures of both Italian and English. The dominance of these languages, particularly English, increases the vulnerability of the Maltese language. The convergence of English and Maltese reminded me of a similar situation between Spanish and English. The emergence of Spanglish is the result of Spanish natives adapting their language with English elements in the US. The phenomenon of convergence between Maltese and English may be comparable. The big difference, though, is that this transition is taking place within the home nation, as a result of an invading language. 

While the development of language is natural, the pressures Maltese language faces by more dominant languages could have a huge cultural impact in the long-run. The articles I read raise points that we discussed many times in 105 and reinforce the purposes for which we choose to study little-known languages. Language evolution and expression reflects power messages about cultural context. In order to fully understand the history of a culture, we can use language to supplement facts. The Maltese language is extremely diverse and historically rich. While I am inclined to say that language evolution is natural and should not be feared, I believe that there is significant value in preserving more obscure languages, such as this one.

While browsing on Facebook, I found a very interesting video. The video was snippet of the show "Voice"- Germany. The video was captioned in Korean; it said "독일오디션 프로그램에서 우리나라 노래부르는 소녀", which means "A girl singing our country's song on a German audition program". Out of curiosity, I clicked the video and I was amazed. This teenager was singing "The Truth Untold" by BTS ft. Steve Aoki. She sang the whole snippet of the song in Korean, minus the couple phrases of English. She said that she learned the language herself, and her pronunciation was impressive. The judges were initially stumped at the unfamiliar language. They were guessing if it was Italian or Spanish, but to their surprise it was Korean. 

As mentioned in my previous cultural post with the show "Kingdom", it is amazing how social media can play such a large role in spreading Korean music and Korean culture. BTS is a Korean idol group that has made it on the Billboard charts and has even given a speech at the UN.  

I have attached the link to the video, which has over 700K views right now! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_FL-pdhLOg

My second cultural post is a screenshot of my conversation with my two aunts in Korea. I will be going to Korea this summer and this is a group chat between the three of us. 큰 is big, and 큰고모 means my "big", or older, aunt. 쟉은 is small, and means my "small", or younger, aunt. Learning geography in Korean class help. Both my 큰고모 and 작은고모 live in the Seoul Province, so I will be close to places like 홍대, which is a hipster, "downtown" atmosphere and 강남, which is the city mentioned in Psy's very famous song, Gangnam Style. 

My 작은고모 is mentioning that she can find me a "알바" which means part time job. She has two sons, 5 and 8 years old, so she wants me to speak English with them. I am looking forward to going to Korea for the first time and spending time with relatives! 

I binge-watched a new series on Netflix called "Kingdom". I first heard about this series when I was watching a Korean entertainment show and actress, 배두나, (Bae Doona) mentioned the new Korean series. Bae Doona is often mentioned as the actress who made it to Hollywood. She featured in Sense8 and Cloud Atlas. One of my favorite Korean actors, 주지훈, also is a part of the show. Joo Ji Hoon was an actor in the Korean film "Along with the Gods", a film I watched in Korean class last year. 

Surprisingly, the first season was amazing!! I actually finished it in one day. The whole series was in Korean, and there were English subtitles. I got my Taiwanese friend to start the show and she loved it as well. As Korean culture and media is becoming more well known through Kpop and Korean dramas, I realize how vast an effect media can have on being able to spread the culture of a country. The setting of the series is in ancient Korea, which additionally helps bring more awareness and education to not only the current state of South Korea but also its history. 

Attached is a link to the series! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l-yByZpaaM

Reflecting back, I was able to achieve all my learning goals for this semester. I wanted a deeper understanding of not only the language, but the culture and history as well. We covered a range of topics in the likes of vocabulary, idioms, history, art, geography, and entertainment. The 112 learnings set me up well for my final cultural project, and I look forward to sharing it with everybody.